They have issued five-place penalties to both Virgin drivers due to failing to notify them about the VR-01 cars’ gear ratios.

Renault’s Vitaly Petrov will also start five places down in Barcelona after damaging his gearbox in his morning practice crash. HRT’s Karun Chandhok suffers the same penalty, also for an unscheduled gearbox change.

It was feared that the reason for Adrian Sutil’s morning breakdown was also the gearbox, but in fact the Force India has been repaired with a new electrical hardware component.

The stewards also summoned five drivers after practice, including Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, for supposedly ignoring yellow flags.

The other drivers investigated were Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg and both Toro Rosso cars, but it is believed there will be no penalties.

HRT rookie Bruno Senna, meanwhile, must pay 1400 euros to the FIA for speeding in the pitlane.
(GMM)